Wachtürme am Dakischen Ostlimes zwischen Brâncoveneşti und Călugăreni (jud. Mureş / RO)

Abstract

The eastern Limes of Dacia in today’s department Mureş at the western foot of the eastern Carpathians consists of a line of auxiliary castles – Brâncoveneşti, Călugăreni und Sărăţeni – which are connected by a limes road. To the East in front of them stood a row of watch towers. Numerous archaeological surveys were undertaken in the limes secion between the Gurghiu valley and the castle Călugăreni in order to verify the location of known and new watch towers; as a result four watch towers could be identified as Roman: Ibăneşti / Cetăţuia Mică (Libánfalva / Kisvár), Chiheru de Jos / Dealul Pogor (Alsóköhér / Pogor-hegy), Eremitu / Dealul Tompa (Nyárádremete / Tompa-tető) and Eremitu / Cetatea Săcădat (Nyárádremete / Szakadát vára). All watch towers were enclosed by a fortification consisting of rempart and ditch. The position of the tower was not always central, in two cases the tower was built in the corner. This enlarged the interior space and facilitated its use. The watch towers evidently performed different functions as not all of them were used to contact the castles directly. Some of them functioned rather as interfaces between other towers and castles and possibly also supplied the watch towers.